CITRATE-CONTROLLED SOLUTION DEPOSITION OF PbSe THIN FILMS

Maayan Perez ^1,2 Michael Shandalov ³ Eyal Yahel ³ Yuval Golan ^1,2

¹Ilse Katz Institute for Nano-scale Science and Technology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
²Material Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
³Department of Physics, Nuclear Research Center Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel

Chemical bath deposition is an efficient method to reproduce high quality thin films. Extensive work has been done on deposition of lead chalcogenides due to their technological importance as infrared detectors and emitters [1]. Our group has previously reported on the ability to obtain desirable microstructure of lead selenide at high pH (>13) by optimizing reactants concentration, temperature and growth duration [2,3]. There is an important advantage in understanding the kinetics influencing the deposition of PbSe at relative low pH (<13) and gaining further control on film`s morphology related to optical properties. Trisodium citrate (TSC) is a commonly used co-complexing agent during chemical deposition of the lead selenide, which allowed us to deposit films at lower pH, yet its exact role has not been systematically studied [3]. This work focuses on the effect of citrate and pH on the kinetics involved in the deposition of PbSe.

[1] A. Rogalski, Infrared Detectors, vol. 1, no. 1. 2011.

[2] T. Templeman, M. Biton, T. Safrani, M. Shandalov, E. Yahel, and Y. Golan, “Chemically deposited PbSe thin films: factors deterring reproducibility in the early stages of growth,” CrystEngComm, vol. 16, no. 46, pp. 10553–10559, 2014.

[3] Gary Hodes, Chemical Solution Deposition of Semicondustor Films, vol. 1139, no. 20715. 2006.